Officials blame weather for drop in deer harvest

Tuesday

Nov 13, 2012 at 11:17 AMNov 13, 2012 at 11:18 AM

Statewide figures from opening weekend down 20,000 from 2011

Taylor Muller

More than a third fewer deer were harvested in Adair County during the firearms season opening weekend, with a local conservation official saying the weekend’s warmer temperatures and torrential rain affected both the deer and the hunters.

The significantly reduced numbers were also reflected across the state, with hunters taking more than 20,000 fewer deer for a statewide total of 69,650, down from 2011’s opening weekend number of 89,728 deer.

“The numbers are down really bad,” said Conservation Agent Marsha Jones. “It stems from the high winds and warm temperatures Saturday which does not make for good hunting conditions. [...] And again you’re not going to keep hunters in the woods when it’s raining like that and the deer aren’t going to be moving any more.”

Adair County hunters reported taking 879 deer over the weekend, down by more than a third from 2011’s total of 1,213.

“We’re not expecting a record year,” Jones said. “We might recover into the season, but that weather is always a big factor.”

Approximately 80 percent of an entire hunting season’s worth of harvests are made during opening weekend.

Saturday saw temperatures soaring into the low 70s with gusty winds while Sunday brought rain nearly throughout the day.

“When it’s almost 80 degrees out, with those animals and their full coat on, they’re not going to be moving much,” Jones said. “Sunday, the first hour or so wasn’t bad but about 9:30 [a.m.] got a torrential downpour.”

Even in the high-draw county of Macon, which reported 1,434 deer taken for the state’s second-highest county, numbers were down from 1,616 in 2011.

Despite the across the board drop in numbers, the Northeast Missouri region still outpaced the rest of the state, reporting 11,592 deer taken, the top of all regions.

But weather has played a bigger role than just this past weekend with the summer’s drought decreasing the amount of acorns and forage available to moving deer herds.

“That’s a huge food source for deer and wild turkey,” Jones said. “When the deer should be feeding, they aren’t. The drought isn’t finished with us yet.”

Hunters have also been on alert in northeast Missouri of chronic wasting disease and epizootic hemorrhagic disease (commonly mistaken for bluetongue disease), two deer-related diseases that may also be to blame for thinner herds.

Jones acknowledged that EHD did take its toll on northeast Missouri’s deer herds, but said that neither disease has decimated the population.

“We’re doing everything we can to minimize their impact,” Jones said.Department of Conservation officials were busy opening weekend attempting to collect samples from every deer taken in certain watch counties, including Adair and especially Macon County.